Editing Data Dictionary Details for Cross Survey Questions

Questions on a cross survey view have the same general properties as questions in a normal survey: a name, description, data type and scale. As with normal survey questions, these properties appear in the data dictionary and can be very useful to data analysts.

To edit the properties of a cross survey question, click the edit icon next to the question name on the cross survey

page. This appears in the far left column of the cross survey view grid.

This brings up the Cross Survey Item Details dialog, in which you can edit the question’s name, description and scale.

Editing a Cross Survey Question’s Scale

When a cross survey question is created, its scale comes from the original question on the survey from which the question was added.

For example, the cross survey view includes three surveys: Survey_1, Survey_2, and Survey_3. It also includes a question called AGE. If AGE was originally added to the view from Survey_1, the scale for AGE comes from the AGE question on Survey_1. If AGE was originally added from Survey_3, the scale for AGE comes from Survey_3.

At times, the scales for a single question may differ across surveys.

For example, two of the surveys may use this scale:

Value

Label

1

Under 18

2

18 – 35

3

36 – 49

4

50 – 65

The third survey may use this scale:

Value

Label

1

Under 18

2

18 – 35

3

36 – 49

4

50 – 65

5

Over 65

It may be desired for the cross survey view to use the scale from the third survey, rather than the first two, since the third scale includes more options.

To do this:

Click the edit icon to open the Cross Survey Item Details dialog.

Under Scale, check the option Regenerate scale using values from survey.

Choose the survey whose scale to use from the list.

Click OK.

In some cases, several of the questions you have mapped to a cross survey question may have different scales. When this happens, it may be desireable to include all of the scale values from all of the scales.

To do this:

Click the edit icon to open the Cross Survey Item Details dialog.

Under Scale, check the option Regenerate scale as a union of all survey scales.

Click OK.

Mismatched Scales

If the survey questions included in the cross survey view question have mismatched scales, there are two possible consequences.

The first is relatively harmless and is easy to fix; the second may be harmful because it can lead to incorrect analysis of the data.

Case 1: Some Questions Include Scale Values Not Found in Other Questions

Assume Survey_1 and Survey_2 have a question called GENDER with the following scale:

Value

Label

1

Male

2

Female

Assume the GENDER question on Survey_3 has this scale:

Value

Label

1

Male

2

Female

3

I choose not to answer

By default, the scale for each question in the cross survey view comes from the first item mapped to the question.

Let’s assume in this case that the GENDER question was first mapped from Survey_1. The scale, then, will include only the two values for male and female.

When this cross survey view is queried, the results may include response values 1, 2, and 3 (since 3 was a valid response on Survey_3).

The summary results for your query will look like this:

Value

Label

1

Male

2

Female

3

??

Because 3 is not on the cross survey question’s scale, the Data Manager does not know what response 3 represents.

The solution to this problem is to regenerate the scale for cross survey question as a union of all survey scales. This will ensure that any value found on the scale of any of the mapped questions appears in the scale.

NOTE: When Illume creates a union of scales, the label for each scale item comes from the first question that includes the scale value.

For example, if the label for value 2 is Female on Survey_1 and FEMALE on Survey_2, the label that ultimately appears in the data dictionary and on the summary results page will be Female (from Survey_1).

Case 2: Questions with Conflicting Scales

If the scales of the questions on the cross survey view are in direct conflict, that is a problem that Illume cannot resolve, and the results of the cross survey queries will produce incorrect summary data.

Assume Survey_1 and Survey_2 have a question called GENDER. Survey_1 uses the following scale:

Value

Label

1

Male

2

Female

But Survey_2 uses this scale:

Value

Label

1

Female

2

Male

The cross survey will take the scale of the first question mapped as the scale for the cross survey question. This means that all responses with a value of 1 will be reported as Male in the summary results of a query on GENDER. All responses with a value of 2 will be reported as Female.

This is obviously incorrect for anyone who submitted Survey_2.

Even if there is a union of all scales, Illume has to pick one label for each of the scale values, and it picks the label from the first question mapped. That is, 1=Male and 2=Female.